Assessment item 3
Task A (10 marks):
You are required in your new role as an Enterprise Architect (EA) to do a SWOT Analysis of a current ICT service in an organization. The default organization is Charles Sturt University, but you can substitute another known entity such as your current workplace.
SWOT is an acronym for questioning the Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threat and helps with the analysis needed to identify the internal (S, W) and external (O, T) positives and negatives as indicated in Fig.1. Such a process can be informative and help the Enterprise Architect (you) to identify the issues and problems, set goals develop an action plan and help strategic IT Infrastructure planning and decision-making.
Figure 1. SWOT Analysis diagram
1. Get a copy of the 31-page SWOT Analysis Strategy Skills eBook from http://www.free-management-ebooks.com/dldebk-pdf/fme-swot-analysis.pdf and note the conditions of use. Use the eBook to guide and develop your 1-2 page report summary for this task.
2. Choose a current IT service in your organization that may need updating or changing.
3. Use the following SWOT table format to develop questions that will reveal any issues or problems.
4. Identify up to a maximum of 5 Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.
5. It is suggested that you use bulleted items in a list in SWOT boxes of the template.
SWOT Template
Organisation: Date: DD/MM/YYYY
Description of current/new ICT service:
STRENGTHS
WEAKNESSES
OPPORTUNITIES
THREATS
Summary and Recommendations:
[Summarise your SWOT results to review goals and objectives]
Short Term (Now)
What action would you take now? [For example comparison with competitors; alignment with the business model or strategic plan goals and objectives].
Mid Term (next 12 months)
How can you take advantage of strengths and use them to develop new opportunities such as new service delivery relationships with ICT vendors and products?
Long Term (next 3 to 5 years)
How would you map out an action plan for the longer term?
Task B (17 Marks):
Write a paper, 4 pages (2-column format) in length, on a topic covered in our textbook. For this assignment, you need to plan, research, and, use your initiative to express the knowledge you learnt in this subject as well as your own independent thinking and reasoning.
Possible topics
Your attention in this paper can be focused on any of the following topics covered in our text:
- Information Management / IT Architecture.
- Database, Data, Warehouse, and Data Mining.
- Networks, Collaboration, and Sustainability.
- CyberSecurity, Compliance, and Business Continuity.
- E-Business & E-Commerce Models and Strategies.
- Mobile Technologies and Commerce.
- Social Media.
- Enterprise Systems and Applications.
- Performance Management Using Data Visualization, Mashups, and Mobile Intelligence.
Approach
Choose a topic which you are interested in and/or which is related to your work. You should do this as early as possible. Once you have chosen a topic, read our text carefully followed by detailed research. Once this is done, you should set up a structure/a series of subtopics and decide what to write under each section (subtopic).
Here is a suggested structure (you don’t have to follow it, but your own structure must be logical):
Abstract: a condensed summary. If someone reads your abstract only, he/she should understand your main points. You may want to write this section last;
Index terms: list the key words used in your paper;
Introduction: introduce the topic you are going to write about. This section must be related to the topics you learnt during the Session. However, you should branch out by carrying out your own research to enhance this section;
Subtopics and supporting argument: write a series of body paragraphs with sub-points;
Conclusion: Many students get confused between the conclusion and the abstract. In the conclusion, you can reflect on how your topic relates to larger issues; evaluate the concepts you have presented; issue a call for action on the part of your audience; ask questions generated by your findings; make predictions, recommend a solution or give a personal statement about the topic.
With your structure in order, you have a skeleton for your paper: you can now begin by writing out your analyses of the passages you have chosen. As you write and revise, you may have the need to add to your analyses or to re-order your chosen arguments. Using a structure as the skeleton for a paper in this way can carry you more than halfway to a completed draft.
Types of papers
Academic papers can be broadly categorized into 2 types:
1. Argumentative Papers;
2. Analytical Papers.
For details, please see http://www.writeawriting.com/academic-writing/how-to-write-academic-paper/
Format and mechanics
You must strictly follow the format provided in the following link, such as space, font, margin etc…
The format will be uploaded on the Resources page of the subject site.
Task C (5 marks):
1. Generate a Turnitin originality report and submit this report via Turnitin;
2. Answer the following questions to interpret the Turnitin originality report. Submit your answers with your main report:
Tasks:
Submit an early draft to Turnitin for self-checking, then look carefully at all the matches marked in bold font and various colours in the self-check/originality report.
Consider the following questions to interpret the Turnitin self-check or originality report, then describe if you have encountered any of the situations listed below. If so, describe the steps you took to improve your final draft.
1. Are any of the bold, coloured text matches in my self-check report missing in-text references? (We need to avoid plagiarism of ideas.)
2. Do any of the bold, coloured text matches in my self-check report include more than three words in a row copied from the original source without quotation marks? (We need to avoid plagiarism of language.)
3. Do direct quotations take up more than 10% of the essay? (We need to change some of the direct quotations to summaries and paraphrases so that at least 90% of every essay is written in our own words.)
4. Are any of the bold, coloured text matches in my originality report purely coincidental? (Sometimes our words coincidentally match with words in other online sources that we have never seen before and that are completely irrelevant to our research topic. If so, we do not need to change anything at all.)
5. Do any of the short strings of matching text indicate that my attempts at paraphrasing were not completely successful? (We need to avoid sham paraphrasing, one type of plagiarism, by using synonyms and changing the sentence structures completely. Remember that we should not copy more than three words in a row from the original without quotation marks.)
6. Have I synthesized all of the sources’ ideas into my essay by introducing each piece of source information with a signal phrase and by adding my own comments or interpretation to it in the following sentence? (We need to avoid dropped-in quotations and simply reporting facts or other people’s ideas because that approach means that instead of building our own arguments and writing our own essays, we are merely stringing together other people’s words and ideas.)
Warning: Turnitin can help you avoid plagiarism, but the Turnitin score, or matching percentage at the top of the report, is not particularly helpful in doing that. The percentage score only indicates matches between your text and other sources. There are many different reasons why your text might match with other sources; for example, students in the same class all working on the same assignment are using the same sources, or it could be a pure coincidence that a student has used the same string of words that appear in another random website. Therefore, we cannot assume that the matches indicated by the Turnitin score involve plagiarism or deliberate cheating.
Students often ask, “What Turnitin score is an acceptable cut-off mark so that I can be sure that I have not plagiarised?” However, because of the large number of variables in the way writers handle sources, no cut-off score can be reliable; in fact, a cut-off score can mislead people into thinking that they have avoided plagiarism, whereas they might have still plagiarised inadvertently. For example, a score of 14% could involve no plagiarism, but a score of 9% does.
Instead of focusing on avoiding plagiarism or the appearance of avoiding plagiarism, let’s consider Turnitin as a tool for improving your skills in handling sources as you construct arguments in your essays.
Turnitin is more than a ‘gotcha’ device – it is an effective learning tool:
Because the sophisticated use of sources involves a complex set of research, critical thinking, and writing skills, you should expect to take several years to master them. Turnitin can be a helpful tool in this developmental process. You should use your originality reports as feedback on a first draft so that you can improve your use of sources before submitting the final draft for marking.
Interpreting the Turnitin Originality Report:
After you submit your draft to Turnitin for self-checking, you should look carefully at the originality report so that you can improve on your use of sources. Your essay will be on the left side of the screen, and the matching colour-coded sources will be listed on the right. Then you can make the necessary changes to your essay before you submit the final draft for marking.
You need to register with Turnitin to create a Student Account under the CSU Turnitin Licence at http://www.turnitin.com/login_page.asp
Further information on how to use Turnitin can be found through the following link: http://student.csu.edu.au/study/plagiarism/checking
Online submission via Turnitin (as a Word document) is required for this assignment. Details will be provided by your subject lecturer.
Rationale
Task A is aligned with objectives 1 and 4 and measures your ability to read and acquire the knowledge and understanding of the main ICT Infrastructure management and technical issues that are concerned with the overall Enterprise Architect practices that are crucial for business success.
Assessment Task B is aligned with objectives 2, 3, 5 and 6 and measures your ability to undertake, investigate, analyse and evaluate the impact of new and current ICT services.
Assignment Task C is designed for you to learn the functions of the Turnitin software.
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